Fern Valley appoints new director Kevin Scott

Walter Bonneau official resigned from the Fern Valley Water District Board of Directors after escrow closed on his house about June 8. Bonneau and his wife Lynne are moving permanently to Arizona.

Richard Schnetzer resigned earlier this year after selling his house, and is moving with his wife Pat closer to family up north.

The remaining directors, President Robert Krieger, Jon Brown and Gary Erb, met Friday for a regular board meeting, followed by a closed session to evaluate General Manager Victor Jimenez and then for a special meeting to interview the only applicant for Schnetzer’s seat, Kevin Scott.

After conversations among the directors, staff and Scott, the board unanimously approved his appointment. (An interview with Scott will be published in a future issue.)

The board set a deadline of July 8 to receive applications for Bonneau’s vacant seat and will consider making an appointment at the July 15 meeting.

Scott sat in on the virtual board meeting before the closed session where directors unanimously passed several standard resolutions: continuing to meet virtually at the July 15 meeting; establishing the appropriations limit for the upcoming fiscal year (FY); fixing assessment charges (unchanged) for Saunders Meadow for the upcoming FY; establishing a policy for investing district reserve funds; and adopting the budget for FY 2022-2023.

The board also approved a new auditor contract for FY 2022-2023 with Fedak and Brown LLP. Jimenez said he asked for bids and only received the one, the same auditor Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) has used for several years.

Secretary Jessica Priefer pointed out to the board that the California Employers’ Retiree Benefit Trust has dropped from $1,259,734 on June 14, 2021, to $1,094,335 as of June 8, 2022. She said it is losing money in the stock market. Brown asked about restructuring the retirement benefit accounts and Jimenez said staff would bring some strategies to the board at the next meeting.

The budget shows an income of $1,724,550, expenses at 1,426,819 and a reserve funds increase of $297,742. This will put the reserves at $1,790,343.

In his general manager’s report, Jimenez said Strawberry Creek is completely dry now. But he assured the board that all of the tanks are full, and timers on wells 13 and 14 will be installed next week to reduce electricity costs during peak hours.

He told the board the tanks are full especially during times of fire danger. “We try to keep the tanks full anytime in summer … Usually by late October or early November it’s not nearly as much of a threat.”

He told the board that new state conservation policies require no more than two days a week of outside watering.

Jimenez’s report showed 25.16 inches of precipitation for July 2021 to May 2022 compared to 9 inches for FY 2020-2021, 14.81 inches for FY 2019-2020 and 31.68 inches for FY 2018-2019.

IFPD Chief Mark LaMont made a brief appearance at the beginning of the meeting to commend the FVWD field personnel for attending the S212 chain saw operation class at Idyllwild Fire recently. LaMont said he will invite them to a CPR class next.

Krieger asked Jimenez if the other water districts have been invited. Jimenez told him, “I don’t know if they have the relationship that we have …” but he thinks LaMont will reach out to the others.